Spider-Raccoon Rescued at Top of UBS Building After Capturing Fans Online

posted by RJ Johnson - @rickerthewriter -
Jun 13, 2018

A raccoon that became social media's latest obsession while scaling the side of an office building in St. Paul, Minnesota, made it to the top safely early Wednesday morning. The "Spider-Raccoon" as some locals began calling him, was spotted scaling the side of the 25-story UBS Tower on Tuesday afternoon.

Witnesses anxiously tracked the raccoon's progress as he scaled the tower, with many online worrying for the mammal's safety. By Tuesday evening, the wayward woodland creature had managed to climb 23 stories high, but it wasn't until just after midnight that the raccoon made the final push to the top of the tower.

“RACCOON UPDATE: We just watched as he made it to the top and climbed over! They have traps with food and I'm sure he is HUNGRY,” Kim Johnson, an anchor for local TV station WCCO, tweeted.

Windows on the building cannot be opened, leaving few options for rescue for the Spider-Raccoon. Animal control officials left live traps on the building's roof with cat food as bait. Minnesota Public Radio News reporter Tim Nelson says the creature was likely looking for food in a lower skyway and had been trapped there for at least two days.

Dubbed on Twitter as #MPRRaccoon, people had a field day with the little guy while they tracked his progress up the side of the tower.

A parody twitter account made for the animal gave us all the reasoning we needed for the raccoon's long, strange journey saying: "I made a big mistake."